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Philip Johnson was dying of pancreatic cancer when he brought his former wife, Thanh Tran, to the basement of his home in Venice, Calif. Under a tarp weighted down with bricks was a violin case with a combination lock. He gave the case to Tran and didn't say a word about it. She assumed it contained an antique violin that she had once bought for him. It wasn't until nearly four years later that Tran learned the truth: The case contained a famous Stradivarius that had been stolen from renowned violinist Roman Totenberg in 1980, likely by Johnson, who died in November 2011 at age 58; Totenberg died the following May, at age 102. Tran initially hoped there was some explanation for why Johnson, who scraped together a meager living as a concert violinist for most of his life, had the Stradivarius. "I'm still digesting it," she says. "It blows my mind. ... Maybe it was just sitting there and it was too tempting."

Only when curiosity got the best of her this spring and she got the violin appraised after prying the case open did she see the Stradivarius label. When the appraiser said they'd need to call the FBI, Tran says she nearly fainted and wondered if she would be arrested. "They asked me if I would be willing to let them take it, and I said, 'Yeah, of course. It's not mine,'" she says. As for her ex-husband, who she says was a "complicated person," she remembers one suspicious thing: He'd never leave the violin alone for long. "I was looking back at some ... pictures of us going for a hike, and he was carrying the violin case with him," Tran says. "Wherever he went, he would always take it with him." She says her biggest regret is that she didn't discover the instrument sooner and return it while Totenberg was still alive. "I wish [Johnson] would have told me before he died," she says. "Then I could have given it back to the Totenbergs. I'm upset about that."

Since we are on the subject of STEALING..... Obama, Clinton Foundation Donors Sold ‘Green’ Fuel to Military for $149 per Gallon -- A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report found that the Department of Defense (DOD) paid Solazyme $149 per gallon for fuel made of algal oil, costing taxpayers a total of $223,500 in 2009. The group also received a $21 million grant from Department of Energy in 2009, under Obama's much ballyhooed Stimulus plan. Three members of Solazyme’s Board of Directors have donated hundreds of thousands to Democrat Leaders, which include more than $50,000 in donations that benefited President Obama. http://freebeacon.com/issues/obama-clinton-foundation-donors-sold-green-fuel-to-military-for-149-per-gallon/

Mr_Joshua

Aug 12, 2015 12:58 PM CDT

Why are we seeing this story here again? It was done a couple of weeks ago and the guy is still dead and the violin is still a Stradivarius. And you can call me..................Mr Joshua